WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine and U.S. Reps. Bobby Scott, Gerry Connolly, Don Beyer, Jennifer McClellan, Suhas Subramanyam and Eugene Vindman (all D-VA) pushed the Trump administration to reverse staffing cuts at the National Park Service (NPS), outlining the effect directives to eliminate employees and rescind and delay job offers will have on safety at Virginia’s 22 national park units, which serve 22 million visitors and contribute $1.5 billion to local economies each year.

“We write today to express our deep concern over alarming directives issued to eliminate roughly one thousand full-time employees, rescind hundreds of offers for full-time positions, and delay thousands of offers for seasonal positions at the National Park Service (NPS). These roles are critical to protecting America’s treasured natural assets, maintaining public safety, and promoting exceptional standards expected at national parks across Virginia and the nation,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. “We urge you to reverse these directives and prevent additional cuts to existing staffing going forward given the critical role that the vast majority of NPS staff play in ensuring public safety. If these directives are not reversed, we fear it will significantly undermine the Park Service’s ability to protect both visitors and park resources, particularly as we approach peak visitation season.”

The NPS  workforce plays a vital role in ensuring the smooth operation of our nation’s parks and the safety of the millions of visitors who explore them each year, and are also responsible for protecting the priceless natural, historic, and cultural resources that belong to the American people. However, recent staffing directives from the Trump administration – which included the dismissal of probationary employees and the rescinding of job offers at NPS with no input from park superintendents – are expected to make it significantly more difficult for NPS to carry out its mission, especially as peak visitor season approaches. Staff positions affected by the administration’s unilateral staffing directives include frontline park rangers responsible for ensuring visitor safety and protecting park assets, maintenance staff tasked with addressing the deferred maintenance backlog and reducing the risk of wildland fires, and support staff responsible for raising revenue for NPS through fee collections.

“It has been reported that the only exemptions offered were for positions that respond to public safety incidents, including law enforcement rangers, public safety dispatchers, and wildland firefighters. However, public safety response is just part of the work that goes into protecting the public,” wrote the lawmakers. “Countless other positions from rangers to natural resource specialists to wastewater specialists to maintenance mechanics that are not covered under the exemptions have wide-ranging responsibilities for preventing public safety incidents in the first place. Eliminating these positions put our parks at greater risk of damage and make them less safe for visitors. We are particularly concerned about reports that NPS rescinded offers for positions directly responsible for fire safety at Shenandoah National Park – coinciding with the start of wildfire season.”

Continued the members, “While it is encouraging that NPS recently walked back its decision to rescind offers for nearly 5,000 seasonal positions, park superintendents have received no guidance as to the next steps they can take to move forward with seasonal hiring. The late winter and early spring months are critical for ramping up seasonal staff in preparation for the summer visitation surge. Without clear guidance for superintendents on seasonal hiring, the continued delay in hiring could jeopardize the ability of these parks to safely accommodate millions of visitors this summer.”

In the letter, the Virginia lawmakers also noted that the staffing directives threaten to undermine the progress Congress has made in recent years to invest in repairing and restoring our national parks.

“For over one hundred years, NPS has been charged with safeguarding millions of acres of America’s irreplaceable natural, historic, and cultural resources. However, persistent underfunding of NPS resulted in the Service’s inability to properly staff park units and the growth of a multi-billion-dollar backlog of deferred maintenance projects. In recognition of the worsening situation at our national parks, bipartisan majorities in Congress passed and President Trump signed into law the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 (GAOA), one of the largest ever investments in conservation and public lands in our nation’s history. The GAOA gave NPS the resources it needed to dedicate billions of dollars for addressing deferred maintenance across the country, including over $470 million for projects in Virginia. As a result of these staffing directives, units will be forced to reallocate remaining staff to support regular operations at the expense of staff hours dedicated to reducing the deferred maintenance backlog,” they wrote.

Concluded the lawmakers, “Significant disruptions to NPS staffing during the critical months prior to peak season threaten to harm the tourism economy associated with Virginia’s national parks that supports hundreds of small businesses and thousands of jobs. We urge you to swiftly reverse these directives and communicate clear guidance to park superintendents to ensure that NPS units in Virginia and across the country can move forward with hiring both seasonal and permanent positions that are critical to ensuring the safety of millions of park-goers.”

A copy of the letter is available here.

###